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Mining Wiki Part 1: Basic Mining
Hello everyone and welcome to Invisible Empire. Today we will be introducing basic mining to all newbies here. First, we will be going through what you will be facing when you start mining. Types of Resources * Ore: Ore is mined from asteroids. Most systems in New Eden have asteroid belts where ore is commonly mined from. Asteroids can occasionally appear in Ore Site anomalies (which do not need to be scanned down). Asteroids can also be found in mission pockets and mined more privately in them. Ore sites in null Sec Sovereignty space usually respawns very quickly. * Ice: Ice is mined from ice belts located in Ore Sites (the name of the site will indicate that its an Ice site). Ice Anomalies only spawn in systems with Ice Belts. Ice Sites do not need to be scanned down and respawn in the system four hours after the site is cleared. ( Note: The ice anomaly will state the main ice resource located in the belts.) * Gas: Gas is mined from gas clouds in Gas Sites (also Cosmic Anomalies). Gas Sites need to be scanned down. Gas sites can appear in any space but the best sites are within Wormholes (which have a 15 minute Sleeper Guard timer). * Ore ** As noted previously, ore can be mined from asteroids located in Belts, Anomalies, or Mission Pockets. Ore is most commonly mined from Belts which are persistent in location and number within a System. ** Asteroid Belts replenish after daily DownTime ( usually about 15 minutes) . Belts can vary in composition and amount and will be generally lower the more often they are mined (think of 'crop rotation' when mining a certain belt). Belts generally return to their full size three days after it was last mined. ** Anomalies are randomly spawning and will have ore types that are rarer than the ore types that appear in the System's Belts. ** The lower the security of space, the rarer the ore type. There is generally little difference in the value of High Security ores (relative to yield), however, ** There are different varients of ore (e.g., Condensed/Dense variants of Veldspar) that are slightly more valuable than the regular grade of ore and should generally be mined first. ** Ore is mined using a Mining Laser or Strip Miner. Mining Lasers are generally used on Mining Frigates (and non-mining ships). Strip Miners are used on barges. Ice ** Ice can only be found in systems with Ice Belts and only from the associated Ice Site (a Cosmic Anomaly). Ice Belts can be easily located through the Dotlan web page with a blue circle around the system box. ( eg: http://evemaps.dotlan.net/map/Domain) ** When the Ice Site cosmic anomaly spawns, a miner can easily locate it through the Probe Scanner (no actual probing is needed, this is the same way combat sites are located and warped to). ** There is a limited supply of ice at the Ice Site (normally a number of ice blocks that can be mined the same way as asteroids). When the site is complete mined out it will respawn in four hours. Sites also respawn/replenish after daily DT. ** While ore is mined by volume, ice is mined by the block. For ore, you're looking for the highest volume per unit of time. For ice, you're looking for the fastest cycle time. Additionally, the entire laser cycle must complete to mine a unit of ice (no "short cycling"). ( Note: 1 unit of ice = 1000m3) ** Ice is mined using Ice Harvesters. The Tech 2 Ice Harvesters are unlocked with the skill Ice Harvesting V. Gas ** Gas can be found in any part of space but the best gas can be found in Wormholes. Gas is mined from Gas Sites that need to be scanned down with a probe scanner (much like Data/Relic Sites). ** Gas Sites will contain a small amount of 'Clouds' which can be mined from much like an asteroid or ice block. Once all of the gas is mined, that's it. There's no fixed respawn timer for gas sites and further gas sites must be scanned down. ** Wormhole gas sites are similar to Knownspace gas sites with one critical difference: In wormholes, when the gas site is *first* warped to, a timer is set (15-20 minutes) where Sleepers will spawn. The quality of the gas site will determine which Sleepers spawn but in all cases these are very dangerous enemies that will destroy your mining ship unless you warp off ASAP. The Sleepers can be destroyed with an appropriate combat ship. However, like with any wormhole activity, the longer you linger, the more risk you are at. ** Gas is mined using Gas Harvesters. Skill requirements are a little different for Gas Harvesters than the other two resource types. Gas Harvesting II is required to equip and use two gas harvesters (normally gas is harvested in a mining frigate). Gas Harvesting V unlocks the Tech 2 version of Gas Harvesters. Therefore, Gas Harvesting II or V is normally what is trained to (based on whether the miner wants tech 2 harvesters or not). Mining Vessels ** Mining is normally performed with dedicated mining vessels (ORE Faction in Ship Browser). Whilst mining can be performed with any ship that can fit a mining laser, it is generally not recommended (it is either inefficient or just plain comical: see the Mining Titan). Mining ships all have specialized ore holds which can hold a volume of ore much greater than normal cargo holds (albeit not as high as dedicated hauling industrials and nowhere near freighters). ** There will be some differences on the survivability of each mining vessel (more on avoiding being ganked later in the class). Pay close attention to the differences on tanks (defenses) for mining barges and exhumers as these differences are important. Mining Frigates do not have strong tanks but have far greater ability to escape being attacked. ** Mining Frigates: The Venture is the starting ship for most miners beginning their career. There are T2 variants of the Venture. *** Venture: Bonuses for Mining and Gas Harvesting as well as +2 Warp Stability (need more than a T2 scram to prevent it from warping). The Venture can fit two mining lasers or two gas harvesters. For mining, the Venture is normally used for early career HiSec mining. For gas huffing, the Venture is a strong choice, even in wormholes. As the Venture is a frigate, mining stationary is a high risk and miners should always be orbiting the target asteroid/cloud. *** Prospect (T2): Bonuses for Mining and Gas Harvesting as well as the ability to fit a CovOps Cloak. The Prospect is generally used for mining in high risk areas such as asteroid belts in NullSec (uncommon) and Wormhole gas sites (common). Its ability to fit a CovOps cloak makes it a fantastic choice for miners traveling without the CovOps or Interceptors skill. *** Endurance (T2): Similar to the Prospect except that it excels in Ice Mining as opposed to Gas Huffing. The Endurance cannot fit a CovOps cloak but it retains all of the cloaking bonuses of the Prospect except the ability to warp cloaked. Endurances are suitable for mining in low and nullsec; however, barges (Skiffs/Procurers) are more commonly used in these environments. ** Mining Barges: The Mining Barge presents a significant improvement in mining yield compared to the mining frigates as well as range. Some of the barges also support a much greater tank making them more resilient to attacks. However, barges are significantly slower and only one of the barge types are safe enough to use in low/nullsec (arguably, in lower security HighSec as well). Barges are generally never used for gas huffing. Mining Barges take about a week of training to initially fly. *** Covetor: With two slots for strip miners or ice harvesters, the Covetor achieves the highest potential yield of the three barges ( through its ship ability ). However, the Covetor also has the weakest tank of the three and it is fairly hard to add much tank to it. Please note that Covetors CAN DEAL with small amounts of npc frigates ( 1-3) with a good fit. They also have the smallest Ore Holds (these fill within two cycles of all three miners). Covetors are best used in organized mining operations or in higher sec HighSec (0.7 and above) with 'Hauler support '(Mining in a covetor in null should be alright, if the space is friendly, but be aware of neutrals) . One annoying attribute of the Covetor is its weak capacitor causing warping to a far location take multiple warps. *** Retriever: The Retriever sports two slots for miners or ice harvesters and has a yield between the Procurer and Covetor (much closer to the Procurer though). The Retriever also can fit a better tank than the Covetor, although it can still be destroyed by a single ganker. As such, it is suitable for mining in the same areas as Covetors. The Retriever is also more ideal for solo mining without hauler support as it has the largest cargo hold. Like the Covetor, the Retriever also has a weak capacitor making travel difficult. However, it CAN DEAL with 1-2 cruiser + 1 Battlecruiser with max skills and a good fit. *** Procurer: The Procurer has two slots for miners or ice harvesters but a vastly better tank than the other two making it far more suitable for mining in risky environments (remember in Low, Null, and WH space, it still can take only one ship to destroy you). The ore hold size is between the Covetor and Retriever but sizeable enough to make it appropriate for solo mining, especially in riskier areas. This is the barge which is most commonly found in nullsec due to its ability to hold off the ganker for reinforcements to arrive. ** Exhumers: Exhumers are the final word in ore and ice mining. It sports significantly better tanks than their T1 counterparts as well as greater yields and capacitor. These take an approximate one month train and have significantly more cost (although they will pay themselves off very quickly). *** Hulk: The T2 version of the Covetor, the Hulk can fit a better tank and has a much better capacitor. However, Hulks are susceptible to single attacker ganks in lower security HighSec. Like the Covetor, they are still best for mining operations and solo mining with Hauler support. *** Mackinaw: The T2 version of the Retriever. The Mackinaw has an ore cargohold of 35k m3 making it able to mine at a location longer than the other ships before an ore dropoff is needed. *** Skiff: The T2 version of the Procurer. The Skiff is the tankiest of all of the mining ships, able to be as sturdy as a Battleship in terms of EHP (Able to reach 140K). That being said, a careless Skiff pilot can still lose their ship in Low/Nullsec. Mining Ship Fitting ** Mining ships are normally shield tanked because their low slots are primarily used for mining yield upgrades while there are no upgrades available for the mid-slots. ** High Slots: For Barges, these will always be the Strip Miners / Ice Harvesters. Never ever fit guns or launchers to a barge (not sure this is even possible) as a barge defends itself with drones. For frigates, two slots will generally have the mining lasers/ice lasers/gas huffers with the third for cloaking (excepting the Endurance which uses one laser). The cloak can be swapped with a probe launcher for scanning down gas sites (a mobile depot will allow this in space, albeit a Venture's regular hold is to small for this with the modules). ** Mid Slots: For Barges, these slots should be fitted with shield extenders/resists. One slot may be used for a Survey Scanner instead of a shield module. The Survey Scanner enables the miner to scan the size of nearby asteroids/ice blocks. This is especially important for efficient mining and is a good choice despite losing a shield slot. Barges generally do not fit prop mods. Fitting for frigates is similar (shield tanking) but instead of a survey scanner a prop mod is recommended. Given the shorter cycle time of frigates, a survey scanner doesn't make as significant a difference to efficiency. ** Low Slots: For Barges, fitting these slots depend on where you are mining. In HighSec, these should almost always be laser upgrades. In other types of space, consideration of a Damage Control and other defensive mods should be made since you can be destroyed by a single attacker. For frigates, since avoiding attacks is more key, fitting inertial stabilizers (or nanofibers), warp core stabilizers, and damage controls are more important. Rarely are mining upgrades fitted for frigates, especially outside of HighSec. ** Rigging: For Barges, fitting shield rigs is recommended. For ice mining, the ice harvesting upgrade rig is an alternative choice (there are no rigs that improve ore mining yield). For Frigates, the same rigs used for Barges are appropriate here as well as astronautic rigs that improve agility. ** Drones: Mining ships defend themselves using drones. You may have been wondering this whole time how one defends themselves against NPC pirates ('rats') and this is with using drones. Light Drones are generally preferable (although the Skiff can field medium drones) and protect the mining ship against most rats (but not so much player attackers when mining solo). ECM drones can be kept ready in case you are attacked by a player and need to warp off (or in HighSec, stop the gank) but are highly reliant on aggro and will usually fail you. Mining drones do not sport a strong yield because they need to travel between the mining ship and the rock (so actual yields are far less than advertised). Using mining drones also reduces the amount of combat drones you can field at the same time and this may require more drone management (an annoyance when mining). It is extremely recommended to NOT USE t1 mining drones. T2 mining drones however, might be doable. Mining Boosts ** There exists two command ships that can significantly improve the capabilities of mining ships, these are the Orca and Rorqual. Both of these are command ships that utilize warfare links to boost things such as mining laser range, yield, and (reduce) capacitor use. Warfare links such as shield boosters can also be used (more important in Low/Null/WH mining). ** The boosts provided by both ships are similar. The difference in them is that the Rorqual is a Capital Ship and cannot be used in HighSec. The Rorqual can also provide stronger boosts compared to the Orca. Orcas are generally used for providing mining boosts in HighSec although since they are cheaper than Rorquals, can also be found in lower security space mining operation. ** Currently, mining boosts must be provided on grid. ** Training a mining boost character takes a great deal of commitment. Achieving perfect boosts can take a lot of time. Boosters are normally compensated with cuts of mining operation earnings or through tips if boosting independent miners. Mining Techniques for Efficiency ** As noted in the discussion of ships, there is a tradeoff between the three aspects of Mining Ships: Yield, Tank, and Cargo Capacity. Here we discuss the benefits and 'costs' of all three: ** Yield: The higher your mining yield (per unit of time), the higher your ISK (per unit of time). Except, increasing yield takes away from your tank and cargo capacity meaning you are at a greater risk of losing your ship or having to haul back and forth to a station or POS more frequently. ** Tank: The higher your tank (or evasiveness for frigates) the less risk you have of ship loss. However, this comes at the expense of your yield. If you are fairly certain you won't be attacked or can escape one that occurs, going for yield is a solid decision. ** Ore Hold: The Ore Hold is what generates the more complex decision making. Without ANY hauling support (from yourself or others), you will need to bring your ore back to a station or POS which takes time (which in a barge can be a significant detriment to your earnings efficiency). Otherwise, if you have some form of external hauling then these techniques can be considered: *** Jetcan Mining: You jettison ore mined into a jet can. Jetcans hold 27k m3 ore and last for two hours. Its a good idea to name cans with a time (either when dropped or expired) so you know when they'll expire. The risks with jetcan mining are: 1- Others can steal your ore from the can (they will get a suspect timer and can be attacked without CONCORD intervention or sec status loss) and unless you can stop them, they will get away with it. 2- Cans have a short lifetime (2 hrs) and can disappear if you're not careful. 3- Someone, either yourself or a friend, will need to haul the ore to a station or POS. Unless that someone is in a freighter, it will take multiple trips. *** EFC Mining: Instead of putting ore in a jetcan, you put it in an Enormous Freight Container (EFC). EFCs can hold 250k m3 and persist until the next server downtime. EFCs, when packaged, only take up 2500m3 and can be deployed by a standard industrial (if your miner is not a hauler, they only need racial industrial skills to haul and launch a handful EFCs). A Freighter is needed, however, to pick up either the whole EFC or volume of ore in the EFC. **** For solo mining, if your hauler and miner are on the same account (or character), you'll need to accept that the risk no one steals the ore during the time you mine and switch characters/roles. If your hauler is on a second account, then you can use the Miasmos (which is a T1 industrial bonused for ore hold capacity with a low skill requirement) to ferry ore back to the station/POS while persistently mining. **** In Low/Null/WH, players can come in and destroy your cans/EFCs with minimal consequence. In these cases, it is better to deliver ore to a safe spot/POS/Station directly unless using a Hauler on field (which is extremely risky). Rorquals can make a viable hauler; however, as it can compress ore on site and also has strong defenses (as compared to Freighters). ** Solo Mining Rule of Thumb: If you don't have access to a Freighter or a Second Account character in a Miasmos, haul your ore directly to the Station/POS. Otherwise if you do, assess the risks of leaving cans/EFCs/haulers in space and act accordingly. More Mining Techniques for Efficiency ** For ore mining, you can short cycle your mining laser to mine a yield proportional to the time the laser was activated. This is useful for mining asteroids with a size less than that of the yield of your laser. So if an asteroid is around half the yield of your laser, cut it off halfway and move on to another rock (the asteroid left will either disappear or just have a few units remaining). This is where the survey scanner is valuable. ** Mining Crystals: For ore mining in a barge, it is possible to use Mining Crystals with Tech 2 Strip Miners. Tech 2 Strips are actually less efficient than Tech 1 Strips unless you are using Mining Crystals. Mining Crystals come in Tech 1 and Tech 2 varieties by ore type but the skill training requirement for them is not very intense. Crystals wear out with use but pay off in yield increases way more than what they are worth. You can also reprocess used crystals (at say 98% used) for the same return as new crystals. A simple technique to use crystals is to carry the various types in your hold based on where you're mining and mine out each type of ore from the belt in order (that way you infrequently change crystals). ** Skilling: While certain skills are necessary to operate the various mining ships and modules, there are some skills that directly impact your yield. You can assess which skills to prioritize to determine which give the best value sooner. ** Which Rocks are Best: For ore mining, the different ores do have some variance in value and with limited time to mine, you may want to focus on the more valuable ores. As noted before, HighSec ore mining efficiency is mainly determined by what yield you can muster but the 5%/10% ores do carry slightly more value. The easiest way to determine what ore to mine first (as well as which skills provide you the most short term benefit to learn) is to use the Isk Per Hour application's mining module. There you can input your skills and determine how much ISK/hour can be earned for each type of rock. It should be noted that trying to mine only a certain kind of rock (say Massive Scordite) from all the belts in the system is less efficient than just mining out a belt (a running theme here is that travel time kills your isk efficiency!!). Other (More Expensive) Techniques ** As mentioned before, having alts can be helpful. Here is a rundown of what each alt adds to a solo mining operation: *** Hauler: You can immediately haul back ore from a jetcan/EFC to a station/POS. This eliminates the cost of having a larger ore hold and makes the Hulk/Covetor extremely attractive (when they are safe to use). Practically, you shouldn't have more than 1 hauling alt. *** Booster: You can boost your yield by a significant percentage. However, this would not be as much as a second Miner (and it would take a lot more time to train than a Hauler). You'll ideally only want a Boosting alt if you intend on supporting Mining Fleets. *** Miner: Very simply, more miners out in space mining is a direct increase to your yield. However, this comes at additional risk and coordination need. In HighSec (when safe to mine), you're mainly contending with coordination trouble. For ore, to be really efficient you need to know when to short cycle your lasers. This is very difficult with more than two active miners. As the number of your active ore miners grow, the greater the loss of efficiency from not short cycling (and you are more likely to double up lasers on a rock). *** Miner (cont): Ice and Gas mining are easier to scale with additional miners; however, you still need to consider the risk of being attacked (more common with gas/ice mining). If you fail to detect an attack, you would potentially wipe your entire mining fleet. *** It should be noted that each account you play EvE on costs either real life money or ISK. If you plan to support your subscription purely with ISK from mining, remember that you'll want to achieve synergies with multiple accounts (e.g., you'd make more ISK per character than you would without the alts). ** Implants: Aside from improving your mining yield skills, you can also install various implants that enhance your ore, ice, and/or gas mining yields. The cost of these implants should be weighed against the time it would take to mine back the cost (break-even) and whether losing your pod is a risk (it is in NullSec/WHs but you can lose it while afk in HighSec to a ganker). Mining Safely ** The level of attention you pay to mining will impact how much you yield and how safe you are. Given how time intensive it is, it is very easy to mine 'AFK' or rather, with less attention than you would normally pay if you were doing a different activity in EvE. Gas is especially easy to mine AFK and maintain yield, Ice is relatively easy to mine AFK for periods of time (but you need to unload cargo every 5 minutes), and Ore suffers moderate efficiency losses especially when asteroids are small in volume. *** If you mine AFK in HighSec your main risk is suicide ganking. The risk of ganks is much higher in 0.5 and 0.6 systems than 0.7+ because those higher security systems have faster response times from CONCORD. It is strongly recommended to review the gank spreadsheet linked in the minerbumping (pw: 315) to assess what it would take to destroy your mining ship in the different space security levels. (Ventures can be destroyed in 1-2 hits from a Catalyst if stationary, which if you're mining in a Venture stationary, you're doing it wrong). *** If you mine AFK in LowSec, NullSec, and Wormholes, EvE probably isn't the game for you. *** For HighSec mining, you should add "CODE." and "Goonswarm Federation" as -5 or -10 contacts to easily identify them in local, they are the more common alliances with miner gankers. D-SCan use can also help identify threats. If you see a frigate in your belt, they could be passively scanning your ship (to see if its well tanked or not) and/or providing a warp in for a Catalyst/Other gank ship. If you see any vessel with a variation of '315' in its name, you should probably start aligning out to your Station or POS. *** 'Mining permits' are a scam, don't bother purchasing one other than for giggles. Because that's all it will give to the ganker that pops your ship and pod. ** As noted previously, jetcan mining (NOT EFC mining) runs the risk of can flipping. The risk of can flipping is much higher with higher value ores or ice. And if you fire at someone that flips your can -or someone else's-, they can fire back (in some cases they are intentionally baiting for this). ** Low Sec mining carries the exact same risk of losing your ship as Null Sec and WH mining (although pod loss is less likely as there are no bubbles in Low Sec). Low Sec ores are not much more valuable than High Sec so if you intend to mine dangerously, you're better off doing it in Null and WH. Wiki Done by Evareus